Knitting machine



A ril 22, 1941. s. E. BRILLHART KNITTING MACHINE Filed July 9, 1958 3 Sheets-Sheet l INVEN TOR S. E. BR/LLHAR T A TTOR/VEV Patented Apr. 22, 1941 KNITTING MACHINE Samuel Edward Brillhart, Lutherville, Md., assignor to Western Electric Company, Incorporated, New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York ' Application July 9, 1938, Serial No. 218,330

21 Claims.

This invention relates to knitting machines and more particularly to knitting machines for covering a core such as an electrical conductor.

One of the limiting factors in operating a knitting machine is needle breakage, which is due to a number of causes such as the rate of acceleration of the needle at the time when it engages the thread and the nature of the forces acting upon the portion of the needle by which it is actuated.

3 An objector the present invention isto provide a knitting machine capable of operating effectively and eificiently at high speeds. v

In accordance with one embodiment of the invention a knitting machine is provided having cam means for actuating the needles so constructed that there will be substantially no lateral thrust on the needle butts and which imparts to the needles a simple harmonic reciprocating motion.

A complete understanding of the invention may be had by reference to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which f Fig; lis a front elevation of aknitting machine embodying the invention;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view through the needle cylinder;

Fig.3 shows a plan development. of a knitted pattern which may be made with the machine; Fig. 4 is a plan development of a different pattern' of knitting made by the machine, and

Fig.-5-is a schematic illustration of the relationship between the thread supplies, needles, and high points of the cams when knitting the pattern of Fig.3. I

'Referring now more in detail to the drawings, a. base 5 is shown having a pair of standards I carrying a cross member 8 in which a cylindrical tube 9 is mounted, through'which the corelll to be covered with a knitted tubular covering is passed. The core with the knitting applied may bereceived on-a take-up reel 50, as shown in Fig} 1." The lower end of tube 9 carries a plate I I upon whicha plurality of thread guides [2 ar adjustably supported. The base 6 is provided with a bearing 13 in which a needle cylinder H- is rotatably supported. The needle cylinder is provided with a plurality of longitudinal slots IS on its outer periphery in which the needles l6 are vertically reciprocable. The needles are held in the needle cylinder by an outer sleeve H which forms a part of the needle cylinder and rotates therewith. The sleeve I! is secured in position on the needle cylinder by means of a set screw 30. In order to remove needles from the needle cylinder, the sleeve is provided with a longitudinal slot 40. By loosem ing the set screw 30 the sleeve may be rotated on the cylinder so as to coincide in position with any needle that is to be removed or replaced. During the normal operation of the knitting machine the slot is so positioned as not to coincide with anyof the needles.

The upper end of theneedle cylinder has a needle head I 8 provided with an upwardly extending tubular portion {9 through which the core to be covered passes downwardly. This cylinder head I8 is adjustable up ordown with respect to the cylinder by means of the lock nuts 20. The purpose of this adjustment is to adjust the height of the upper rim of the tube IS with respect to the needles in order to make the loops formed by the needles loose or tight. For instance, an upward adjustment of the tube l9 -will causethe needles to draw the loops being formed farther below the upperrim of this tube and thus produce looser loopsvthan in a lower position of the tube l9. The needles l6 areprovided with needle butts 2! which may be formed as a sector of a gear and be provided With'teeth. The butts 2| extend radially inward through slots in the needle cylinder and are engaged by an oscillating cam ring 22 which is annularly stationary with respect to the needle cylinder; that is, the ring 22 does not rotate relative to the cylinder. The rotation of the cam ring 22 relative to thecylinderis prevented bya pin 23 which extends into a slot 24 in the cylinder wall. The cam ring 22 is oscillated through a shaft 25 which is journaled in a ball bearing. mounted on the frame 6, a pair of ball bearings'2l and 28, disposed between the shaft and the lower inner wall of the needle cylinder, and a ball bearing. 29 disposed between the upper end of shaft 25 and the cylinder head IS. The shaft 25 is slidable in the inner ball race of ball bearing 29 in order to permit vertical adjustment of the cylinder head 18, as pointed out above. Mounted on the upper end of shaft 25 is a collar 3| having a cam 32 forming an inner ball race mounted thereon in such a manner that the axis of. the

ball race is at an angle to the axis of the shaft,

This ball race acts as a cam or driver for cam ring 22. r v

A second cam 33 is similarly mounted onthe shaft and the axis of ball race in cam 33 extends also at an angleto the axis of the shaft 25 but in the opposite direction from the axis of cam 32. Cam 33drives an outer cam ring 34 similar to cam ring 22, and the rotation of cam ring 34 relative to thecylinder is prevented by a pin 35 extending into a slot 36 in the cylinder wall.

Alternate needles are actuated by difierent cam mechanisms. Thus every other needle'is actuated by cam 32 and the remaining needles are actuated by cam 33. As the shaft 25 rotates relative to the needle cylinder it will be seen that the needles are reciprocated by the came with a simple harmonic motion having uniform acceleration. When a needle engages a thread in the upper portion of its stroke, the speed of the needle will be substantially at its lowest value, increasing gradually to its maximum{ speed with uniform acceleration. The impact on the needle, therefore, caused by the inertia of the thread as the needles engage the thread and rotate with the cylinder will be at a minimum. It will also be seen that due to the fact that the cam rings 22 and 34 do not rotate relative to the cylinder, there will be no lateral or circumferential thrust on the :needle butts, and only such a force will be applied thereto as will cause the needles to move up and down.

It is desirable in covering an electric conductor to have the courses of loops extend parallel to the axis of the conductor, which requires that the thread supplies be stationary, and therefore the needle cylinder is rotated. Usually when the thread supply is stationary, a stationary cam having as many cam lobes as there are thread supplies is used. In accordance with the present invention the cams, however, are rotated relative to the needle cylinder, and the speed of rotation of the cams relative to the needle cylinder is so correlated that each needle will engage all or selected ones of the thread supplies.

The rotation of the cams and needle cylinder is effected through a shaft 31 driven by any suitable means, not shown. On this shaft is a gear. 38 engaging a gear 39 on the cam shaft 25, and a second gear 4| also mounted on shaft 3'! engages an annular gear 42 on the needle cylinder. The thread for the knitting operation is supplied from a plurality of stationary cops,

43. The thread is taken off over the end of the cop and passes through a device 44 which applies a light tension to the thread, from which the thread passes through eyelets in the thread guides I2 to the needles.

The relative speeds or the needle cylinder and the cam shaft will depend upon the number of thread supplies, the number of needles in the needle cylinder, the number of cams, and the patternof the knitted structure to be made. Only two cams, having high points 180 apart have been shown in the embodiment of the invention selected for illustration, and two radically different patterns of knitted structures have been selected to illustrate the flexibility of the machine.

Inmaking the pattern illustrated in Fig. 3 five thread supplies are used as indicated by the courses numbered 1 to 5 extending parallel to the axis of the core, and seven needles per cam are used, alternate needles being actuated by difierent cams, and the high points of the cams being 90 apart. For the given number of thread supplies and needles per cam ring the pattern of Fig. 3 will be obtained when the cams are driven at 3% times the speed of the needle cylinder. In this pattern the loops of one course overlie the floats of an adjacent course and the loops are twice as long as the angular distance between thread supplies, indicating that the needles engage every other thread supply. Needles I and 2, for instance, engage thread supply I, then thread supply 3 and thread supply 5. After engaging thread supply 5 needles I and 2 skip "thread supply I and engage thread supply 2. The result of the odd number of thread supplies and having the needles engage every other thread supply is that the entire covering for the core constitutes a single jacket. The advantage of having all of the threads in a single jacket is that if one of the thread supplies should be more taut than another this tautness will be distributed around the periphery of the knitted structure being formed. Where two separate jackets are applied, one jacket may be looser than the other when the tension on the strands is unequal.

The arrangement of the cams, needles and thread supplies for the knitted pattern of Fig. 3 is shown in Fig. 5 in which T1, T2, T3, etc. represent the thread supplies, N1, N2, N3, etc. represent the needles and C1 and C2 represent the high positions of the cams. Cam I actuates the odd numbered needles and cam 2 the even numbered needles. In the position shown cam I has just actuated needle I to engage thread I. Needle I will then skip thread 2 and engage thread 3. Needle I must travel two-fifths of a revolution from the position shown to reach thread 3 and since the high point of the cam travels three and one half times as fast it will travel one and two-fifths revolution to actuate needle I to engage thread three. Each of the other needles will be similarly actuated to engage every other thread supply.

Fig. 4 illustrates a pattern in which the angular length of the loops is equal to the angular distance between thread supplies. In order to obtain this pattern four thread supplies are used and five needles for each of the two cams, the high points of the cams being 180 apart. This pattern is then obtained by driving the cam shaft five times the speed of the needle cylinder in the same direction.

Various other combinations may, of course, be used. For instance, by providing three cams with their high points apart, having five needles per cam or a total of fifteen needles, and eight thread supplies, a symmetrical knitted structure may be made by driving the cam shaft times as fast as the needle cylinder and in the opposite direction.

It will be evident, of course, that the cams and cam rings may be integral, omitting the ball bearing therebetween. In this case the means for holding the cam angularly stationary with respect to the cylinder is omitted and the entire cam rotates relative to the cylinder. The needles will then still be reciprocated with a simple harmonic motion, although there will be a material thrust on the needle butts which may not be objectionable in relatively slow speed knitting machines.

The term. stationary thread supplies as used in this specification and appended claims is intended to signify that the thread supplies do not cam element'within the cylinder and angularly stationary relative thereto for engaging said needle butts to reciprocate the needles.

2. A knitting machine comprising stationary thread supplies, a rotating needle cylinder, a plurality of needles mounted in said needle cylinder having inwardly projecting needle butts, and rotating cam means engaging said needle butts to actuate said needles in predetermined relation to the thread supplies.

3. A knitting machine comprising stationary thread supplies a rotating needle cylinder, needles of different lengths mounted in said cylinder, a cam member for one length of needles,

a cam member for another length of needles and means for actuating said cam members to impart simple harmonic motion to the needles.

4. A knitting machine comprising stationary thread supplies a rotating needle cylinder, needles of different lengths mounted in said needle cylinder, a cam, for one length of needles, a cam for another length of needles, and means for actuating said cams to cause the needles to reciprocate in a predetermined relationship to a fixed point.

5. A knitting machine comprising a needle bed, needles movably mounted in said bed, a cam element angularly stationary with respect to the needle bed, and a cam for actuating said cam w element to reciprocate said needles.

6. A knitting machine comprising a needle cylinder, needles reciprocably mounted in said cylinder, said needles having inwardly projecting needle butts,'a cam element engaging said needle butts and angularly stationary with respect to the cylinder, and a cam for said cam element rotatable witlmrespect to the needle cylinder for actuating said cam element to reciprocate said needles.

7. A knitting machine comprising a needle cylinder, needles reciprocably 'mounted in said cylinder, a plurality of thread supplies, a cam element angularly stationary with respect to the cylinder for actuating said needles to engage said thread supplies, and a cam rotatable on the cylinder axis for actuating said cam element.

8. A knitting machine for applying a knitted covering to a core comprising a needle cylinder, needles reciprocably mounted on said cylinder, a cam: element angularly stationary with respect to the cylinder for actuating said needles, a cam rotatable on the cylinder axis for actuating said cam element, a tubular shaft supporting said cam, and means for passing a core to be covered through said tubular shaft.

9. A knitting machine comprising a needle cylinder, needles reciprocably mounted on said cylinder, a cam element for actuating said needles, means for causing said cam element to be angularly stationary with respect to the cylinder, a shaft mounted on the cylinder axis, and a cam for actuating the cam element mounted on said shaft.

10. A knitting machine comprising a needle cylinder, needles reciprocably mounted on said cylinder, a cam ring for actuatin said needles, means for causing said cam ring to be angularly stationary with respect to the cylinder, a cam for causing the cam ring to reciprocate the needles, and a ball bearing between the cam and cam ring.

11. In a knittingmachine having reciprocating needles for knitting a tubular structure, a cam element for actuating said needles, means for preventing movement of said cam element transversely of the movementof said needles, and a cam for moving said cam element to reciprocate said needles.

12. In a knitting machine having reciprocating needles for knitting a tubular structure, a cam ring for actuating said needles, means for preventing movement of said cam ring transversely of the movement of said needles, a cam for moving said cam ring to reciprocate said needles, and a ball bearing between said cam and cam ring.

13. A knitting machine comprising a needle cylinder, needles mounted to reciprocate on said cylinder, said needles having a plurality of teeth whereby the needles may be actuated, and an oscillating cam means having teeth engaging the needle teeth to actuate the needles.

14. A knittin machine for knitting a tubular structure comprising a needle cylinder, needles mounted to reciprocate on said cylinder, a hollow shaft through which the structure being knitted passes, and a rocking cam means on said shaft for actuating said needles.

15. In a knitting machine for knitting a tubular structure, a needle cylinder having slots opening to the interior of the cylinder, needles mounted on said cylinder having butts extending into the cylinder through said slots, a sleeve for holding the needles on the cylinder, said sleeve having a slot through which the needles may be removed.

16. A knitting machine comprising a needle cylinder, needles having butts mounted in said cylinder, a cam element engaging a plurality of needle butts to actuate the needles, and a cam for actuating said cam element.

17. A knitting machine comprising a needle cylinder, needles mounted in said needle cylinder, a cam element for actuating a plurality of needles, and a cam concentric with said cam element for actuating said cam element.

18. A knitting machine comprising a needle cyl-.

inder, needles mounted in said cylinder, a cam element for actuating a plurality of needles, a cam movable relative to the cam element for actuating the cam element and a ball bearing between said cam element and cam.

19. A knitting machine comprising a needle cylinder, needles mounted in said cylinder, a cam element for actuating a needle, a cam concentric with said cam element for actuating the cam element, and a ball bearing between said cam element and cam.

20. A knitting apparatus comprising a cylinder, needles mounted on said cylinder having inwardly extending projections, a shaft in axial alignment in the cylinder, and a cam means engaging said projections of said needles mounted on said shaft, the axis of said cam means being at an angle to the axis of said shaft.

21. A knitting machine comprising a rotating needle cylinder, a plurality of groups of needles.

mounted in said cylinder, a cam for each group of needles rotatable relative to the cylinder for reciprocating each needle of the group once for each revolution of the cam relative to the needle cylinder, and a plurality of circumferentially spaced thread supplies for each group of needles, said cams actuating needles to knit at circumferentially spaced points and rotating relative to the thread supplies to actuate each needle to operate on more than one of said thread supplies.

SAMUEL E. BRILLHART. 

